- Safiu Kehinde
The Senate Committee on Finance has withdrawn its motion for the removal of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Registrar-General, Husaini Magaji, following his apology to the committee.
NPO Reported that the committee had last week called for Magaji’s removal over his repeated failure to honour invitations to appear before the lawmakers.
The committee made the call during their meeting with President Bola Tinubu’s economic team on Thursday.
With Magaji noticeably absent at the meeting, Senator Uzor Kalu angrily moved a motion calling for the immediate removal of the Registrar-General over what he described as persistent refusal to honour invitations from the finance committee.
The motion was supported by Sen. Adams Oshiomole with other members of the committee subsequently coming to a resolution to adopt the motion.
In the wake of the motion, Magaji would on Tuesday appear before the committee to apologise for his absence.
The CAC Registrar-General blamed miscommunication between his staff and the committee for his absence as he noted that he was on assignment in Lagos when he received the committee’s letter of invitation.
“I want to tender my apologies to the entire committee. Sir, it is not my conduct. I hold this committee in high esteem. What happened that day was actually a miscommunication between our staff and the committee.
“I was coming from Lagos and I asked them to call me to let the committee know that I am coming because we received the letter in the evening before that day.
“I can’t leave some of the activities that took me to Lagos and rush back. Unfortunately, I came late. And if you could observe Sir, I was there at the last sitting.
“My name is being reflected in the attendance.” He said.
While admitting to the internal communication challenge in his commission, Magaji disclosed that he had since set up a liaison office dedicated to the National Assembly.
He assured the committee of not repeating such act of negligence again.
“I observed that I have issues internally in my commission concerning communication between the National Assembly and my commission.
“And as a result of that Sir, we created an office dedicated as a liaison to the National Assembly so that something like that cannot happen again it.
“This is my undertaking Sir. it will never happen again. I hold this committee in high esteem, and I take responsibility of what happened. I am tendering my apology Sir.” The CAC boss said.
In reaction, Kalu who raised the motion for his removal pleaded on his behalf to the Committee Chairman, Sen. Sani Musa.
The Abia lawmaker called for the withdrawal of the motion while warning Magaji against repeating such act.
“I think since he has apologised to the Senate, Mr. Chairman, we should withdraw that motion. He has shown enough remorse.
“It is imprinted inside the constitution. It is not our law and we are just doing our job. Since you have created a liaison office between you and the National Assembly, sin no more.
“If we catch you again, we will cut your hand. Mr. Chairman, I appeal to you on behalf of the committee to be merciful and let us just warn him.” Kalu said.
The Senate committee effectively withdrew the motion for the removal of the CAC Registrar-General.